To The Future
by KraziKrysti
Summary: Lily gets a glimpse of the future causing her to realise the truth about her feelings for a dark haired boy. Crappy summery, oneshot.


DISCLAIMER: I'm not a blonde. Translation: I'm not JK, thus this-is-not-mine. Got it? Good.

TO THE FUTURE.

Lily was on the train back to London for the school holidays. She was the only one of her friends to be doing so. All the others were staying at Hogwarts at their parent's insistence, for while Dumbledore was head there was no safer place, but being muggle born Lily's parents didn't quite know the dangers that were rising in the dark. Not that Lily minded, after all their living in the muggle world probably protected them from detection. However, this having no one to talk to was boring…Lily dosed and didn't wake until she heard the shrieks of children on the platform just outside her window.

"James Sirius Potter! How dare you!" A woman yelled rather loudly. A young boys' voice answered so quietly that Lily couldn't hear what was said

'But James is at Hogwarts.' Lilys' sleep muddled mind protested. Then the fact that it was a young boy's voice registered. She peered out of the window. Had she somehow travelled back in time? She wondered sleepily, completely bypassing the thought that it could be a dream from the shear REALNESS of her surroundings. As she watched a young dark haired boy of no more that 12 stand in front of a woman who must be his mother, looking dejected.

"Apologise to your sister right now!" The red haired woman continued. The boy must have done so for the woman nodded, a hand still on the shoulder of the crying red headed little girl of around 9.

'But, James doesn't have a sister.' Lily was confused as she continued to watch the interesting family on the platform, now fully awake. Just to make sure she pinched herself and had to muffle her painful intake of breath, but the people on the platform didn't seem to hear her.

"Now go stand with your father, I can't be dealing with you when you're like this. You're so much like your grandfather sometimes. Hush now Lily, don't cry." The woman was saying to the boy as she picked the girl up. The boy slouched over to some dark figures Lily could just about see through the steam coming from the train. Only then did Lily realise that they were the only ones there. There was no one else on the platform and there were no sounds of people exiting the train, or of people even on the train for that matter. She froze, wondering what was could possibly be happening. Out on the platform the little girl sniffed and clung to her mother.

"Is he really like Grandpa Potter?" she asked softly and the woman smiled

"Well, I never met him you know, he died before I was born, but from what we have learned since he was enough of a toe rag that Grandma Potter hated him from the first day she met him. He was always joking and pulling pranks." The little girl looked up at her mother

"Tell me the story of Grandma and Grandpa Potter, please mummy?"

"Now Lily?"

"Please?" The little girls lip wobbled.

"Oh all right. Now, you know that we don't truly know what happened right? All those that could have told us died before they were able to tell your father much of his parents." The little girl nodded

"Now, no one knows for sure how long it was that James Potter loved Lily Evans before they married, but everyone agrees it was a long time. His love was one sided for many years, for Lily Evans refused to give into the yearning of her heart." On the train lily gaped. Was this some sort of sick joke? She didn't love Ja-uh, Potter!

"It didn't help that James was jealous of her best friend Severus Snape"

"That's the same Severus Snape that Al is named after, right mum? Albus Severus?"

"That it is. But this was not a one sided jealousy, for Severus Snape loved Lily also, and he was jealous of the attention that James received from her, however much it was she seemed to hate him." Sev fancied her? That was completely and utterly ridiculous. So ridiculous in fact……

It explained everything……

"And so they provoked each other until Severus went too far. He didn't mean to, you understand, but he was humiliated and he'd been hanging around with the wrong sort and, well, it's the kind of thing boys do when they like a girl, but the word that Severus used was unforgiveable and so Lily 

didn't forgive him. From then on the silent rivalry between James and Severus was gone. James became an alright sort and eventually persuaded Lily to become his friend, then later his love, while Severus was left to the darkness that promised to swallow him up." That was so sad, maybe Lily should forgive him…

"Poor Severus." Sighed Lily as she snuggled closer to her mother, echoing the thoughts of the Lily on the train.

"Yes. And as Lily and James loved and lived, he became a Death Eater."

"Oh no!" Little Lily gasped, while Lily on the train gaped again. Sure the signs were there, and his friends…but he wouldn't! Would he?

"They were dark days you understand. You had to pick a side and by principle it seemed that Severus would pick any side against James. That wasn't his only reason for he was indeed deep into the darkness by then, but there was always a possibility he could have been saved. But then something amazing and awful happened."

"Dad!" the little Lily exclaimed

"Yes. Lily and James Potter had a son." On the train Lily fell off her seat before crawling over to the window, entranced by the story being told before her.

"And they loved little Harry more than anything. But as Harrys' first birthday approached a Prophecy was made of a boy born near the end of the summer who would destroy the Dark Lord." Lily's eyes widened, her son was to be the downfall of Voldemort? Her son and……James'? A strange feeling filled her.

"Go Harry!" she whispered, clutching to the window. Out on the platform the woman continued, not having heard the Lily on the train at all

"The Dark Lord took exception to this, as one might, and decided the boy must be killed. No one knows for sure why he seemed to think it was Harry, for it could have been many other boys, but think this he did. What happened next seemed to surprise everyone, except maybe Dumbledore."

"Albus Dumbledore, right? Who Al is also named after?"

"Yes, him. Anyway, it turned out that Severus Snape was still in love with Lily and when he found out that the Dark Lord meant to kill the Potters, he begged him to spare Lily." Lily felt rather angry at this, if she was spared and her husband and son were not, she would never forgive Severus. A woman could never forgive a man who stood by and let the man she loved be killed. Not that she loved James or anything…

"The Dark Lord indicated it could be possible, but Severus knew his master well, and so he fled to Dumbledore. Dumbledore was angry with Severus, first he'd told the Prophecy he'd over heard to his master, and then he'd begged for the life of only Lily. But Dumbledore was a kind man and as Severus broke down, telling Dumbledore to save James if he must, but to not let Lily die he promised he'd do all he could if Severus agreed to become a double agent for him. To sit at the right hand of the evil man that was Voldemort and pass his secrets on to the Order of the Phoenix. Severus was terrified but finally decided this was not too much to asked and agreed. Yet the Potters were betrayed."

"But not by Severus though, right mum?"

"No, not by Severus. He held up his end of the bargain, always. But The Dark Lord came for the Potters never the less. James held him off, trying to give Lily time to escape with the baby that was your father, but it was no good. Amazing as James was as a no man could fully stand up to the evil that was Lord Voldemort while their wife and child were still in the house." James…died? Died protecting her? Protecting their son? Lily felt strange and her face was cold. She lifted her hand to find…tears?

"Once James was dead Voldemort continued after Lily and Harry. Lily begged for her sons' life, told Voldemort to kill her instead, but to leave her son alone. Voldemort, maybe remembering his promise to Severus, maybe wanting to cause Lily pain, told her she need not die, just to hand over the boy. But Lily wouldn't do it, and so she died to protect her son. Then Voldemort turned to the baby on the floor. But this is where it gets complicated. For Voldemort could not kill your father for the love that had driven Lily to die for him was the strongest protection anyone could have and so the Dark Lord could not kill baby Harry? His curse backfired and his soul was fragmented." They died? Lily cried quietly to herself. But their son lived, that had to be something! And not only lived, but loved, for the mother and daughter in front of her was surely proof of that. But, she still couldn't believe that she and James…but the girl was asking another question

"But Voldemort wasn't dead, was he mum?" and lily gasped in horror

"He was not. His soul had been fragmented and each fragment had to be destroyed before he could truly die. But every time he tried to rise up, every time he attempted to return your father was there to stop him. Each year that Harry was at Hogwarts it seemed Voldemort tried something new, until finally he returned and the Order was brought back. Severus had not forgotten his promise to Dumbledore and had even helped to protect Harry in the past, for Lily, no matter how much he hated the boy. For Harry looked too much like his dad for Severus to truly forgive him."

"And he helped Daddy stop Voldemort didn't he mummy!"

"Yes, yes he did. Dumbledore became cursed. Severus managed to slow its progress but he had no more than a year to live. He made Severus promise that when the time came that it would be him to kill Dumbledore, and no one else. And so the deed was done and everyone believed him to be a man Dumbledore had wrongly trusted. The Dark Lord made him the new Headmaster at the improved Hogwarts. But what no one knew was that he was still taking orders from Dumbledore, for there was a portrait of him in the Heads office. When the last battle came about, Severus fled to Voldemort, attempting to keep those safe that Dumbledore had entrusted to him, while seeming to be working for his Master. But Voldemort believed he needed to kill Severus to gain control of the wand that had once been Dumbledore's', and so kill him he did. But before he died Severus passed along hidden memories to your father. The secrets that he left behind revealed not only how to finally rid the world of Voldemort, an action only your father could take, but also revealed the true nature of the man who was once Severus Snape. Cruel and evil he may have seemed, but it was all an act. What he had once been had gone with the death of Lily. But he'd kept up the pretence to keep Harry safe. Not that hard really, with your father looking the way he does."

The little Lily sighed in contentment.

"And that's why daddy fought so hard to get a portrait of Sev in the Heads office, right?"

"That's right."

"Do you think I could see it one day mummy?"

"I'm sure that would be all right."

On the train Lily's sight was blurred with her tears. Wiping her eyes she froze. Walking towards them through the mist, a young boys hand gripped in each of his own was…….James. No. That wasn't right. His eyes weren't the warm hazel that Lily saw every time she looked up into James' smiling face. They were the shining green that she saw whenever she looked in the mirror. But the look in his eyes as he looked over at the woman hugging the girl was the same as the look that James sent her way whenever he could, and Lily shivered as the woman's eyes reflected the same look. That look was love. Lily's eyes filled once more as she looked upon her son. He was handsomer than James somehow. The jaw was the same, the cheek bones, the nose, but there was something about him.

"And what are you lovely ladies doing over here?" He asked his wife and daughter and Lily's heart lurched. Even his voice was similar. Had she not known James so well she would have believed it to be the same. And as his wife and daughter joined him Lily realised something. The reason she knew his voice to be different from James' was because she'd recognise James' voice anywhere. One word from him and she would instantly locate him in a crowded room. Because they were right. Every single one of them. She had been ignoring her heart. But she didn't love James. Not yet. Not the great love that the woman embracing her son, Harry, outside the window had claimed of her. But she knew that the yearning she felt could become that love. She smiled as Harry wrapped an arm around his wife, realising that it was his love for her that caused him to look that little bit better than his father. The boundless love he was able to express brought a joy to his face that seemed infectious. Lily couldn't wait to see if she could bring the same joy to James' face.

"James has something to say, don't you James." Harry was saying from the platform, looking down at his son as Lilys eyes filled again

"Lily?" a voice from behind her made her turn. It was a Hufflepuff prefect. Lily couldn't remember the girls' name

"We've arrived you know. We can get off the train now." She pointed to the window and when lily turned back, the glimpse of the future gone.

"Oh, yes! Right…"

Yes, Lily couldn't wait for the chance to make James' face look just as happy.

She also couldn't wait for his lips on hers, but that was another matter altogether. She smiled to herself as she walked over to meet her parents.

But damn they made fine looking children.

FIN!

A/N: I can't remember what gave me this idea, but I thought it was a rather cute one. Again, as always with my stories, something isn't quite right, and I can't be bothered trying to work out what I'm sure I'd finally get it if I sent about a month re reading and editing. But I've re read and edited it 4 times over the last 2 days and I'm getting bored of it. This could isn't helping. Maybe the love and cookies you send me via the review button will make it go away?


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